Treasure Coast/Palm is reporting that Patrick Murphy has defeated Allen West in the race for Florida’s 18th Congressional District. The website said the unofficial “final count was 65,841 votes for Murphy and 52,704 for West.” The Palm Beach Postnoted, “although results have not been certified,” that Murphy has increased his margin of victory to .65%. West supporters are protesting the results and the proceedings, and a Twitter hashtag #AllenWestRecount has been created.

The entire proceedings from the election to the recount have been filled with questionable behavior, poor management decisions, uncertainty and doubt, throwing into question the integrity of the vote. On Saturday and Sunday, there was more mystery, more doubt, and more shenanigans.

I had written that I am a liberal in support of Allen West getting a fair deal. I said that the Democrats appeared to be engaged in election fraud. I believed that the handling of this election eroded the efforts of voter right advocates to spotlight the voter suppression efforts of Republican Governor Rick Scott. I still feel that way. In fact I believe that the actions of the Democratic Party in St. Lucie, Florida will become the case study for Scott and others to implement even more suppressive and repressive voter rights legislation. And they will have the justification for doing so. Unfortunately, it will be aimed at the voters when all election fraud as this sorry episode proves is committed by election officials. Thanks St. Lucie, Florida. Election fraud does exist and the Democrats in Florida are up to their eyes and elbows in it.

On Saturday, St. Lucie began recounting all 37,379 ballots cast during the eight day early voting period in Florida after Patrick Murphy’s team lost the 11th hour attempt to have a court order prevent the recount.

Going into the recount West trailed Murphy by 1,907 votes, a margin of .58%. West had hoped to narrow the margin between him and Murphy to below the .5% threshold required for a full recount of all ballots. Varying reports said West needed to gain somewhere between 122 and 250 votes in order to cause a full recount of all ballots.

The recount began on Saturday morning and Twitchy.com provided updates on the process. The recount was suspended on Saturday night at 11:00 p.m. because the malls where the offices are located were closing. Observers pointed out that they found it curious that the office was unable to complete counting all of the ballots except for the missing 304 that were found in Supervisor of Elections Walker’s office. West, who has refused to concede defeat to Patrick Murphy in the race for Florida’s 18th Congressional district, had won a fight to have the early voting ballots recounted in St. Lucie County.

The recount resumed Sunday morning and was expected to be completed in time to meet the noon deadline for submitting the certified tally to the state. After the litany of errors and shady dealings that precipitated the recount you would have assumed that officials would get it right on Sunday. You would have guessed wrong.

As the Sunday noon deadline approached rumors started circulating that St. Lucie had missed its deadline to certify its votes and that would mean that the election would be awarded to Murphy. The Palm Beach Postsaid, “If the results do not arrive on time, the certified unofficial results submitted last Sunday stand.”

Observers said that the delay in posting the final count was due to a suspicious “malfunction” in one of the voting machines.

The Palm Beach Postreported that a West official said “the recount showed 900 voters cast ballots in precinct 93, where there are seven registered voters.” The paper alsosaid West’s team had “requested the poll sign-in sheets from election day.” According to the paper “West’s campaign wants to compare the number of signatures on the poll sign-in sheets to the computer tabulations.” “West has not received the sheets,” said the paper.

On Sunday, the paper reported that West’s attorneys were “seeking an emergency hearing in the St. Lucie County Courthouse” in an effort to prevent the canvassing board from certifying its results based on the tainted results that prompted the recount in the first place. That appears to be a moot point. Tcpalm is reporting, “Walker's administrative assistant, Annie Clark made the noon deadline.” West’s attempt to seek an emergency exemption from the state also appears to be a long shot.

NBC Miamisaid, “state law says an election emergency means any occurrence, or threat thereof, whether accidental, natural, or caused by human beings, in war or in peace, that results or may result in substantial injury or harm to the population or substantial damage to or loss of property to the extent it will prohibit an election officer's ability to conduct a safe and orderly election.”

Loss of integrity doesn’t count.

To read more detail about the underhanded dealings in the Allen West recount travesty clickhere: